The Queensland Symphony Orchestra will perform an orchestral work by high school student Jon Platz, titled Prelude for a Painted Sky, as a part of its 2026 season on 29 August. He will become the first highschooler to have a commissioned work premiered by the QSO.

Jon Platz. Photo supplied

“It’s a tremendous honour and something I am incredibly grateful for,” Platz said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to challenge myself as a composer and to write something that will be shared with a live audience from my local area.” 

Platz is from Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland, and wrote his orchestral piece aged 17. He is now a first-year university student in Brisbane. 

Prelude for a Painted Sky was commissioned after Platz completed the QSO’s Compose Program in 2025, and was inspired by the colours, light and textures that have shaped his life growing up in the region.

“I hope the audience is able to share in that experience and be transported, even for a few minutes, to the spectacular skies that inspired the work,” says Platz.

“More than anything, I hope they leave with the same sense of wonder I feel whenever I look up at a Far North Queensland sky that is so magnificent, it could have been painted by the hand of a master artist.”

Prelude for a Painted Sky will premiere in Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony Under the Stars, which is an open-air concert at Muro Martin Parkland in Cairns as a part of the Cairns Festival on 29 August.

For more information, tickets and the full program, visit here.